Clock Question

[RushIsRot]

Why did the accepted convention for clock hands originally occur as it did? It seems to me that logic would dictate making the larger hand indicate HOURS and the smaller one mark MINUTES. Have I missed something obvious?

[Xyzse]

1. I don't know...

But I would say that for hours and it doesn't move much, the short is better.

The reason being, you need to figure out the minutes more often, and the closer the pointer is to the appointed minute, the easier it is to figure out which minute.

The shorter hand wouldn't be able to point to the exact minute that easily, or at least more people would have a harder time figuring it out.

[Sanity Claws]

2. Maybe people generally know the hour but need to know the minutes

so the minute hand is larger.

I just pulled this out of an orifice. Please excuse the smell.

[sl8]

3. A reason, not sure if it's the primary reason:

You only have to resolve where the short hour hand points to to the nearest 1/12 of the the circle. With the minute hand, you're trying to resolve to the nearest 1/60 of the circle. If the minute hand were very short, it would be extremely hard to resolve to the nearest minute.

[jakeXT]

4. It's thinner so it works, what I hate is a clock without numbers on it. /nt

[RushIsRot]

5. On the wall clock at which I am looking as I write this...

all three indicators touch the increment marks.
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Perhaps I just have too much time on MY hands...

[cyberswede]

6. The first clocks only had one hand that showed the hour...

so I presume when a minute hand was added, it was made longer in order to tell it apart?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_face

Before the late 14th century, a fixed hand (often a carving shaped like a hand) indicated the hour by pointing to numbers on a rotating dial; after this time the current convention of a rotating hand on a fixed dial was adopted. Minute hands (so named because they indicated the small or minute divisions of the hour) only came into regular use around 1690, after the invention of the pendulum and anchor escapement increased the precision of time-telling enough to justify it.

[Chan790]

7. Yes.

This decision is a conscious one that the minute hand must be longer. Look at a clock face with no numbers only "sing" markers.

There are 12 equally spaced "sings" demarcating the hours. There are 60 equally spaced "sings" for the seconds and minutes. The minute hand is longer because it has to be in order for the user to be able to quickly determine at a glance which "sing" the minute or second hand is pointing to. The Hour hand is shorter because the degree of accuracy needed to read it at a glance is 5x less.

[lastlib]

8. Just get a digital clock and quit worrying about it!

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[patricia92243]

9. lol - that's the answer :)

[RushIsRot]

10. That thought did occur to me.